This Variety Included a Mystery Fish

We fished out of the Big Talbot Island park this morning - I met Jerry "Gator" Brown and his son Alex and son-in-law Brad early and we headed  up the Intercoastal and into Jackstaff to find a large runout just as the tide peaked at high. The three anglers were tossing live shrimp under float rigs to the grass line and even though they were making pin point casts, we had no real bites. We moved over and fished another bank, had a few nibbles, then fished a point of grass, switching to jigs and live shrimp. Both Jerry and Alex picked up some feisty Jack Crevalle, Brad tangled with a
Ladyfish then they landed a small Bonnethead Shark. Then I believe it was Alex who had a good bite, worked the fish up to the boat and landed.....a Mystery Fish! [now identified as a Stripped Burrfish]  One that I've never seen before. I'm guessing it's part of the Toad Fish family but this one was just like a slug, fat, with spines. I've emailed Mote Marine down in Tampa to get an ID. That's the neat thing about fishing salt water - you never know what you're going to pull up. We ran around to Nassau River, fished some docks to no avail, then hit Seymore's Pointe and got into the Magrove Snapper. All three anglers were working the float rigs and picking up a Snapper here and there. Jerry had one that was a little over 14",  the biggest so far this year. We worked some oyster beds and runouts and Jerry landed a keeper sized Flounder and then a Stingray to wrap up a great day to be out fishing the waters of Amelia Island, Florida.